A sudden change of heart on Conway

So the Speaker has finally iced Derek Conway from his Cronies Chairman's Panel. Yesterday, when my colleagues James Kirkup and Rob Winnett inquired whetherÂ Michael Martin planned to do the decent thing and deprive the disgraced MP of this nice little earner, they were told the situation remained the same ie that Conway continued to be a member of the panel.

Asked about the sudden change of heart, Mr Martin's spokesman loftily dismissed the suggestion that the Speaker had been pressured into offering up his chum by the barrage of hostile criticism he had received in the previous 24 hours "This matter was under discussion in the usual channels a week ago," he sniffed.